The band, first called My Backyard, was formed in Jacksonville, Florida in the summer of 1964, on break from the band's boarding school, Texas Military Institute in San Antonio, TX, by teenage friends Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Allen Collins (guitar), Gary Rossington (guitar), Larry Junstrom (bass), and Bob Burns (drums). Their early influences included British Invasion bands such as Free, The Yardbirds, and The Beatles, as well as Southern blues and country & western music.

During the 1960s, the band changed names several times (most notably The Noble Five and One Percent) while playing local dances and clubs in Jacksonville. In 1968 they won a local Battle of the Bands contest, using the prize money to record the songs "Need All My Friends" and "Michelle", the former released as their debut single on Jacksonville-based Shade Tree Records. They also won the opening slot on several Southeast shows for California-based psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock.

In 1970, the band began rehearsing at the "Hell House", an isolated farm in Green Cove Springs, a small city in Clay County on the outskirts of Jacksonville. Roadie Billy Powell joined as keyboardist around this time. The final band name also made its first appearance, a mocking tribute to Rossington's and Burns' gym coach at Robert E. Lee High School, Leonard Skinner. Skinner would strictly enforce the school's dress code, which did not allow boys to have long hair touching the collar or sideburns below the ears. Some of the band members were even expelled for having their hair too long. After being punished several times, the bandmates played a show, still as One Percent, but Van Zant jokingly announced from the stage that they were now called Leonard Skinner. The name stuck, soon becoming Lynard Skynard, and finally Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Lynyrd Skynyrd continued to perform throughout the South in the early 1970s, further developing their hard-driving, blues-rock sound and image. In 1972, Leon Wilkeson replaced Larry Junstrom on bass. But Wilkeson surprised his bandmates with the announcement that he was "still too young and not ready for a road" and left just before Lynyrd Skynyrd was to record the first album. Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King was asked to fill in as bass player. After the album was completed, Van Zant informed King that he was "the worst bass player he'd ever played with". He suggested King move to guitar so they could reproduce the studio album's three-guitar mix. Lynyrd Skynyrd's triple-guitar attack soon became its signature sound. Van Zant married girlfriend Judy Seymour in 1972.

Producer Al Kooper was impressed with Lynyrd Skynyrd during a performance at an Atlanta club called Funocchio's in 1972, and signed them to MCA Records. He produced their first album, 1973's, which featured the song "Free Bird". "Free Bird" began to receive national airplay, eventually reaching #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The song has also become the subject of a Rock and Roll cliché, which is the shouting of a request to hear the song at almost any live concert, regardless of the performer. This practice has become so commonplace at live concerts it has largely evolved into a parody of itself.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's fan base continued to grow rapidly during 1973, due in large part to their opening slot on The Who's Quadrophenia tour in the U.S. Their second album, 1974's Second Helping, was Lynyrd Skynyrd's breakthrough hit. Unfortunately, the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash happened just months after that song was penned, leading Neil Young to perform the song himself on his 1978 album Rust Never Sleeps. Furthering the rumors of friendship, Young has occasionally included the chorus from "Sweet Home Alabama" at his own live concerts, including at Young's first live performance following Van Zant's tragic death. Finally, one of the last photos of Ronnie Van Zant prior to his passing features the frontman wearing a Neil Young t-shirt.

Second Helping reached #12 in 1974, eventually going multi-platinum. In July 1974. Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of the headline acts at The Ozark Music Festival, at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia Missouri. Some estimates have put the crowd count at 350,000 people which would make this one of the largest music events in history. Lynyrd Skynyrd also toured the UK in 1975 with Golden Earring and in 1976 with The Rolling Stones.

In 1975, Burns left Lynyrd Skynyrd and was replaced by North Carolina drummer Artimus Pyle. The new lineup's first album, Nuthin' Fancy, was released, becoming their first Top Ten album. It features the hit song "Saturday Night Special" (#27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart). Guitarist Ed King left the band midway throughout the Nuthin' Fancy tour. Lynyrd Skynyrd decided to continue on as a 6-piece, with only two guitarists.

Gimme Back My Bullets followed in 1976, but didn't reach the same success as the previous two albums. In December 1975, backup singers Leslie Hawkins, Cassie Gaines and JoJo Billingsley (collectively known as the Honkettes) were added to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Guitarist Steve Gaines, brother of backup singer Cassie Gaines, replaced King in 1976, just in time to record the double-live album One More from the Road, Lynyrd Skynyrd's second Top Ten hit. At its peak, Lynyrd Skynyrd's unique triple guitar style included one slide and a rocking Gibson Explorer. Adding to the wall of sound was the melodic bass playing, the wild yet rhythmic percussion section, Van Zant's strong vocals, and the furious keyboard/piano playing of Powell.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's sixth album, Street Survivors, was released in October of 1977. It would be the final album released by the original line-up.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's legend is grounded in a plane crash that occurred on October 20, 1977, three days after the release of Street Survivors. A chartered Convair 240, N55VM, carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd between shows from Greenville, South Carolina to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana crashed near a forest in McComb, Mississippi. A damaged magneto in the right engine resulted in the plane running out of fuel. The crash killed singer/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray. Other Lynyrd Skynyrd members were injured, some very seriously. Drummer Artimus Pyle crawled out of the plane wreckage with several broken ribs, but could walk. Road crew members Kenneth Peden Jr. and Mark Frank had received bad cuts, but also could walk.

Street Survivors became Lynyrd Skynyrd's second platinum album, and was the #5 top selling album on the U.S. album chart. The single "What's Your Name" reached #13 on the single airplay charts in January of 1978. Lynyrd Skynyrd disbanded after the airplane tragedy. On the original pressing of the cover of Street Survivors was a photograph of Lynyrd Skynyrd engulfed in flames. MCA Records, out of courtesy, withdrew the sleeve and replaced it with a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd striking a similar pose against a plain black background.

Rossington and Collins formed The Rossington-Collins Band between 1980 and 1982, releasing two albums. Pyle formed The Artimus Pyle Band in 1982. Collins formed The Allen Collins Band in 1983. Tragedy struck the band again in 1986 when Collins crashed his car while driving drunk near his home in Jacksonville, killing his girlfriend and leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

In 1987, Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited for a full-scale tour with crash survivors Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle and former guitarist Ed King. Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, took over as the new lead singer and primary songwriter. Due to Collins' paralysis, he was only able to participate as the musical director, choosing Randall Hall, his former bandmate in the Allen Collins Band, as his stand-in. Collins became stricken with pneumonia in 1989 and died on January 23, 1990.

The reunited Lynyrd Skynyrd was meant to be a one-time tribute to the original lineup, captured on the double-live album Southern By The Grace Of God/Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour - 1987, but because of an overwhelmingly positive reaction by fans, Lynyrd Skynyrd decided to stay together and record new material. Leon Wilkeson, Lynyrd Skynyrd's bassist since 1972, died of lung and liver failure on July 27, 2001. Ronnie Van Zant's widow, Judy Van Zant, currently owns and operates Freebird Live, one of Jacksonville's premier live music venues, located just 1 block from the ocean in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.

They released a double album called Thyrty which had songs from the original line up to the present. Lynyrd Skynyrd also released a live DVD of their Vicious Cycle Tour and on June 22, 2004 Lynyrd Skynyrd released the album Lyve: The Vicious Cycle Tour. On December 10, 2004 Lynyrd Skynyrd did a show for CMT called Crossroads which is a concert, featuring Country Artists and others genre's of music. On February 5, 2005 Lynyrd Skynyrd did a Super Bowl party with special guests, 3 Doors Down, Jo Dee Messina, Charlie Daniels and, Ronnie and Johnny Van Zant's brother Donnie Van Zant of .38 Special. On February 13 Lynyrd Skynyrd did a tribute to Southern Rock with Gretchen Wilson, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban on the grammy awards. On May 10, 2005, Johnny and his brother Donnie Van Zant released a Country Album called Get Right With The Man which featured the hit single Help Somebody. In the summer of 2005, lead singer Johnny Van Zant had to have surgery on his vocal chord to have a polyp removed. He was told not to sing for 3 months. On September 10, 2005 Lynyrd Skynyrd peformed without Johnny Van Zant at the Music Relief Concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Kid Rock took Johnny's place. In December of 2005, Johnny Van Zant returned to sing for Lynyrd Skynyrd.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked the group #95 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

On November 28, 2005, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that Lynyrd Skynyrd would be inducted alongside Black Sabbath, Blondie, Miles Davis, and the Sex Pistols. Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan on March 13, 2006. Lynyrd Skynyrd had been nominated 7 times.

In the spring of 2006 Johnny had to have his appendix taken out and was unable to attend the ACM Awards that May. In May 2006 Lynyrd Skynyrd added Mark Matejka who was from The Charlie Daniels Band to take the place of Hughie Thomasson. In July of 2006 Lynyrd Skynyrd did a special called Toyota Presents CMT Live At Summerfest and they also performed What's Your Name on CMA Music Festival.

All Funked Up
All I Can Do Is Write About It
Ballad Of Curtis Lowe
Call Me The Breeze
Comin Home
Crawl
Dead Man Walkin'
Don't Ask Me No Questions
Down South Jukin'
Gimme Back My Bullets
Gimme Back My Bullets W/ Kid Rock
Hell Or Heaven
Hijo De La Luna
I Know A Little
I Need You
I Never Dreamed
Jake
Life's Lessons
Lucky Man
Mad Hatter
Need All My Friends
One More Time
Pick'Em Up
Red White And Blue
Rockin' Little Town
Saturday Night Special
Simple Kind Of Man
Swamp Music
Sweet Home Alabama
Sweet Mama
That Smell
That's How I Like It
The Ballad Of Curtis Lowe
The Last Rebel
The Way
Tomorrow's Goodbye
Truck Drivin' Man
Voodoo Lake
Was I Right Or Wrong
We Ain't Much Different
What's Your Name?
Whiskey Rock-A-Roller
Workin For Mca
You Got That Right